While Imperial Pacific International (IPI) continues to struggle with a myriad of financial and legal issues surrounding the development of the Imperial Palace casino resort in Saipan, it’s doing everything it can to shore up its financial health. It doesn’t seem to be working, though, and has seen two consecutive years of losses. Now, after accountants poured over the books with more scrutiny, the company reports that its losses for last year are going to be greater than previously anticipated.
In a filing with the Hong Kong bourse today, IPI asserted that it sees “an increase in net loss for the year ended 31 December 2019” compared to 2018. It added, “The expected increase in net loss is mainly attributable to the considerable decrease in total revenue and gross profit and the impairment of trade receivables.” That decrease in revenue and gross profit stem from the company’s agreement to finally make good, in a small way, on its outstanding $37-million tax bill. The final year-end numbers aren’t yet available, as accountants are still wrapping up their calculations.
In 2017, IPI reported a profit of around $82 million. Since then, however, things have gone downhill, due in no small part to the allegations of wire fraud and money laundering, as well as a number of lawsuits from former construction workers, and the past two years have seen losses. In 2018, IPI’s total revenue was around $418.37 million, a 58.2% year-on-year drop, and the company reported a net loss of $382.3 million for the year. For the first six months of last year, the company saw a net loss of about $242 million off a massive 82.5% reduction in gaming revenue. With that in mind, it’s difficult to imagine what its full-year performance will be when IPI releases its updated figures on March 31.
From top to bottom, IPI can’t seem to get its act together. In recent history, no CEO has been willing to stay for more than a year and several executives have jumped ship. The company’s controlling shareholder was forced to sell 5% of her holdings in order to help keep IPI running as it faces several legal actions from various fronts, including federal authorities and workers. Yet, despite spending an exorbitant amount of time trying to overcome the plethora of negativity, the company still hasn’t been able to grasp that its troubles would go away if it simply played by the rules – the established rules, not its own.
